Biography:
Wooden Heart: One morning, after Ross is sent to Dumati, Tara finds Callum in her bed. She assumes that Ross has been killed and that Callum has emanated resulting from the trauma. In fact, Callum has emanated to absorb all of Ross’ trauma. He is a submissive and a masochist, viewing anything Tara inflicts upon him as a kind of expiation. It’s also quite perceptive of Ash – Tara has a bit of a sadistic streak.
At this point in her life, Tara is fed up – on one level with the political games she is forced to play, on another with Ash and his revolving emanations. Despite the fact that the public sees her as married only to Prince Patrick (albeit having a number of affairs including the artist Driscoll Garrett, the scientist Cüinn Cleary, and a number of the servants including the gardener and her personal trainer), she flaunts Callum as her personal sex slave. In some quarters, this is seen as a scandal, but the old Skarsian aristocracy approves – this is how men are supposed to be treated. It doesn’t sit well at all with the men of Volparnu, especially while she is trying to implement a program of progressive, non-gender-biased education. She comes into conflict with Gol’l Marstk, a Volparnian noble who attempts to put her in her place by sexually molesting her. He is shocked when Callum attacks and overpowers him while Tara coolly gives him a lesson that “her submissive” is not everyone’s submissive. Later, Callum explains that he sees himself as Tara’s dog – completely obedient to her but dangerous to anyone else.
Eden Blues: As Tara comes to understand Callum and the role he plays in the pleroma, she begins to devise complex scenarios to fulfil his psychological needs. In Ross suggests to her that she consult Lorcan, who is an expert sadist.
Callum emanates after Constantine is gravely injured on Dumati – by this point, Ashkaman has already sacrificed Charles to protect Tara from an assassination attempt. Tara is angry – she realizes that Ash knew about the attempt but didn’t inform the emanations so that they would not abandon their mission to capture General Panic. Callum adds that Ash thought Charles needed a push to grow a second branch. He understands her fury, and is here to be punished. Tara won’t play along – instead, she orders Callum to dress formally and accompany her to make a press statement knowing full well that this is the most mortifying thing she could do to the self-effacing submissive.
After the press conference, she asks Callum why he is still emanated considering that she could better have used Ailann or Patrick or Cillian. He says that because there are unemanated Goliath branches, Ash can no longer absorb physical damage by growing a new branch. It’s okay – between two trees, Ash can handle it – but he needed to emanate Callum, who absorbs trauma to emanations (opposed to Jamey, who absorbs damage to the trees). Knowing that Callum enjoys abuse, Tara physically attacks him, venting her frustration.
Tara instructs Callum to tell her whenever he thinks there’s something important she ought to know. This upsets him – he doesn’t feel qualified to judge what’s important. Lorcan volunteers to help him, and suggests that the best thing to regenerate Constantine would be if Tara brands Callum. He is right – the act of the Chosen asserting ownership makes Callum feel blissful and secure.
The Poison Garden: Seth interviews Callum as part of his investigation of the nature of evil. Callum explains that he doesn’t see his actions as morally transgressive – he is neither dissipated nor in love with his own destruction. He speaks of the strength it takes to be a perfect servant. But when Seth deems him incapable of evil, Callum disagrees. If Tara required him to do evil, he would – and accept all moral responsibility for the act. Seth concludes that by Cu’enashti standards, Callum is of the finest moral character.
In “The Prophecy of Snakes,” Tara sees an amrita vision of Callum, and calls for him to emanate to explain it. He tells her that Ross is discouraged because the holovid of his torture is widely available, but Tara has never watched it. Tara is horrified by the thought, but ultimately understands the perverse Cu’enashti logic which makes Ross want to share it. Tara asks if Callum wants to watch, and he answers that he’s relived the events a thousand times, but it never seems to help. Nevertheless, when Tara forces herself to watch it with Callum, it is Callum who breaks. Tara comforts him, telling his that he is the personification of the part of Ash that wants to worship the Chosen. This is an epiphany to Callum – he realizes that he no longer needs to suffer, to be afraid, to worry about being safe – all he needs to do is to worship Tara.
During “The Prophecy of Ripening,” Patrick discovers that there is an enormous amount of automatic sexual response between emanations which occurs during pollination – apparently, Callum has been sexually servicing Cillian for quite some time, but everyone either ignores it or forgets.
The Perpetual Rose: Callum stays mostly in the background, but he immediately empathizes with Lorcan’s suffering, and takes Lorcan’s side against Cillian.
The Portable Grove: Callum is supposed to take part in the thirteenth experiment, but on the surface, it appears to be a test of strength of the Archons. In reality, it is a test of strength between Cillian and Callum as to which one will impose his view of strength, but Tara accidentally negates their debate by judging Ailann the winner.
The eighth stress-test is another contest – this one of domination between Cillian and Marius. Despite Callum’s perfect performance, it is clear that his allegiance is to Tara, and she chooses Marius over Cillian.
Correspondence Chart Entries from The Portable Grove
| Denotation | Callum O’Shea (Gaelic: dove; Gaelic, from Ó Séaghdha: descendant of the hawk). |
| Numeration | 17th Emanation of Ashtara; 17th branch of Atlas; 50 in the correspondence chart. |
| Age | 21 |
| Hotness | 9/10 |
| Vital Statistics | 1.719 meters tall, cock size 15.871 cm when erect. |
| Description | Pretty toyboy, small and thin with wiry musculature. Shaggy dark hair, almost shoulder-length, with streaks of blue-green dye. Wears leathers, boots, collar. Prefers to go shirtless, but will wear a white t in public. Has nipple rings. |
| Skills | Lifestyle submissive. Incredible tolerance to pain. |
| Sexual Prowess and Kinks | Will try anything. Enjoys abuse. |
| Average Duration of Play | 32 minutes, 43 seconds. |
| Totem Tree | Commiphora myrrha, the gum myrrh. |
| Fixed Star | Phact, the dove (α Col; also G CR – the Climbing Rose, a constellation in Skarsian astrology). |
| Color |  |
| Esoteric Symbol | The Etruscan letter (p) |
| Function | Facilitative insight. |
| Official Title | His Royal Lowness Callum O’Shea, Princely Submissive of Skarsia. |
| His Prophecy | Delight without shadows. |
| Dessert | Nau’gsh parfait (whipped cream topped by fruit and panna cotta). |
Persistence of Weeds Addendum
| Branch Growth Characteristics | Natural branch growth resulting from the trauma of Ross’ rape, torture and death. Used as a template for his half-brothers on Goliath, Julian and Dominic. |
| Nul-history | Bonded with Jamey; accidentally synched with Wynne and was drawn into the Atlas proto-consciousness. |
| Proto-conscious Root Concept | Worship, designated Oblation. |
| Prime Number of Energy Resonance | 229 |
| From Self-Portraits Not-of-Me II: Baby Pictures by Driscoll Garrett |  |